Feeling queasy? How about deceitful? New research shows feelings of disgust encourage unethical, self-interested behaviours such as lying to get more money.At first look, these findings would suggest...

UNSW Science has been recognised for its outstanding teaching with two academics winning prestigious 2014 Australian Awards for University Teaching.Associate Professor Chris Tisdell, of the School of...

French physicist and Nobel laureate, Professor Serge Haroche, will be awarded the Dirac Medal at UNSW next week and will deliver the 2014 Dirac Lecture.Professor Haroche, of the Collège de France in...

Sydney schoolgirls carrying out a research project with UNSW plant ecologists, Professor Angela Moles and Dr Julia Cooke, have identified a possible solution to the annual problem of Christmas trees...

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has committed $5 million in funding to help Australian-based researchers in their quest to build a silicon-based quantum computer.As part of the agreement, Commonwealth...

November 2014

Overweight and obese people experience many more episodes of being stigmatised in their everyday lives than was realised, with most suffering almost daily negative treatment, a UNSW-led study shows....

The announcement Monday evening in the US that there would be no charges against a policeman over the shooting of a teenager is puzzling and already the target of critique.It’s not just the decision...

Australia’s Mopra telescope, nestled in NSW’s Warrumbungle National Park, is earmarked for closure in a year thanks to CSIRO funding cuts. But this one-of-a-kind telescope is well worth saving.Few of...

I’m not sure who wrote the latest anonymously published scientific satire — Duronimus Karlof, Critical Mass — but I can be pretty certain it wasn’t Jane Austen. It’s closer to Voltaire’s Candide and...

An aerial survey of waterbirds in eastern Australia covering about a third of the continent is underway for another year.Led by UNSW’s Professor Richard Kingsford, researchers are using a small plane...

UNSW Science is a major contributor to UNSW securing the highest amount of Australian Research Council funding in Australia – with $45.3 million across three funding schemes announced today.Overall,...

‘Green steel’ technology invented at UNSW has achieved a major milestone, with its use in Australia preventing more than two million waste rubber tyres from ending up in landfill.The discarded tyres...

Two UNSW research teams have found distinct solutions to a critical challenge that has held back the realisation of super powerful quantum computers.The teams created two types of quantum bits, or "...

You likely couldn’t outswim Alicia Coutts or Ian Thorpe, or lift half of what Damon Kelly or Seen Lee can, but I bet you could beat them at a videogame.Welcome to e-sports, the future of competitions...

Scientists have discovered a new form of non-genetic inheritance, showing for the first time that offspring can resemble a mother’s previous sexual partner – in flies at least.This confronting idea,...

The mere sight of a slice of gooey chocolate cake, a cheesy pizza, or a sizzling burger can drive us to eat these foods. In terms of evolution we show preference for high calorie foods as they are an...

A new study has overturned the long held view that microbes in the world’s oceans are highly mobile and the same cells can be found anywhere across the planet, unhindered by geographic boundaries.An...

Our ancient ancestors’ ability to move around and find new sources of groundwater during extremely dry periods in Africa millions of years ago may have been key to their survival and the evolution of...

The first evidence of water ice clouds on an object outside of our own Solar System has been discovered by an international team including UNSW’s Professor Chris Tinney.Water ice clouds exist on our...

Recreational sailors who become “citizen oceanographers” could help provide vital scientific knowledge about the world’s oceans by sampling and testing remote waters from their yachts, according to a...

Professor Merlin Crossley and Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons were among five national experts chosen to speak at a Smart Science symposium at Parliament House with Chief Scientist Professor Ian...

UNSW mathematicians and oceanographers have developed a model that could reveal who is to blame for litter in the floating garbage patches in the world’s oceans.The best known area of concern is the...

Over the past week or so, the Bureau of Meteorology has stood accused of fudging its temperature data records to emphasise warming, in a series of articles in The Australian.The accusation hinges on...

The first survey of the presence of tiny fragments of plastic in the sediments has revealed concerning results that warrant more research to determine the severity of the problem.The research was led...

Step aside Olympians – the new sporting pursuit of choice may soon be professional gaming. Electronic sports (or esports) are now mainstream, drawing more than a million viewers in large tournaments...

The issue of race has been in the news a lot lately with the canning of proposed amendments to Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act, attempts by extremists to commit genocide on cultural minorities...

Members of the public have the opportunity to financially support younger scientists who want to carry out cutting-edge research, with the launch of a new crowdfunding platform called Thinkable.org....

July 2014

The airline industry has a history of poor financial returns. On a global basis the cost of capital hasn’t been recovered any time in the past 25 years, and in 2014 the industry-wide profit forecast...

The evolutionary forces shaping bacteria and the psychology behind obsessive thinking are among the research projects led by the newest UNSW Science Future Fellows.Eight new Future Fellowships worth...

Professor Mark Diesendorf dispels the myths and explains how current renewable energy sources are ready to supply 100% of Australia's energy needs, right now.In a recent article on The Conversation,...

Professor Merlin Crossley outlines why he established the Scientia Lecture and UNSW Medal for Science Communication in a speech introducing the inaugural recipient, Scottish geologist and documentary...

New research shows projected changes in the winds circling the Antarctic may accelerate global sea level rise significantly more than previously estimated.Changes to Antarctic winds have already been...

A UNSW-led team of researchers has discovered a potentially habitable Earth-like planet that is only 16 light years away.The “super-Earth” planet, GJ 832 c, takes 16 days to orbit its red-dwarf star...

Search "human evolution" in Google images and what you'll get is an abundance of stereotypical images of an idea deeply embedded in our subconscious, the inevitable line or ladder of human evolution:...

Mixed plastic and glass waste is set to become a valuable commodity with the establishment of an $8.8 million “Green Manufacturing” research hub at UNSW led by Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla.The...

Over the past few months, a lot of attention has been paid to the potentially strong El Niño event brewing in the Pacific Ocean. But there is also the potential for an emerging climate phenomenon in...

Researchers studying the hydrology of Wellington Caves in western NSW have made a discovery that challenges a key assumption used to reconstruct past climates from cave deposits.Published in Nature's...

May 2014

The search for missing flight MH370 isn’t over in the Southern Indian Ocean – it’s just going deeper in an attempt to cover the ocean floor over a much wider area.Much of the search effort so far has...

The decision by NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay to lower the speed limit in the Sydney central business district to 40km/h is a step in the right direction. But it does not go far enough.As a community...

Six UNSW researchers have the honour of speaking at this year’s Science at the Shine Dome event in Canberra.The three-day gathering held in the Australian Academy of Science’s Shine Dome from Tuesday...

During a radio show this week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott winked - in and of itself, hardly a newsworthy event. The context of the wink, though, appears to have made all the difference in making this...

Preserved giant sperm from tiny shrimps that lived at least 17 million years ago have been discovered at the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site by a team including UNSW Australia researchers.The...

Although videogames are seen by many as a waste of time, one thing they do undeniably well is teach. The problem is that educational games are about as much a game as low-fat ice cream is delicious....

Author Douglas Adams famously had his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy remark that “space is really big”. But to my mind the sheer vastness of space is better encapsulated in the recent announcement...

Australia’s coastline has been struck by up to 145 possible tsunamis since prehistoric times, causing deaths previously unreported in the scientific literature, a UNSW study has revealed.The largest...

A UNSW Science researcher has contributed data and expertise to an international study on the decline of vegetation greenness and water content in Congolese rainforests over the past decade.Dr Yi Y....

Australians are allergic to tall poppies, vanity, and standing on ceremony. Those inducted into halls of fame usually look uncomfortable as they enter.The announcement the titles Sir and Dame will be...

The bacterium that causes whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis, has changed – most likely in response to the vaccine used to prevent the disease, with a possible reduced effectiveness of the vaccine...

If we’re not certain that the problem’s there, then … we shouldn’t take actions which have a high severity the other way.This was the response from David Murray – then chairman of Australia’s Future...

How does alcohol consumption affect romantic life? Let me count the ways.If popular advertising is to be believed, the consumption of high-end spirits almost guarantees a steady variety of glamorous...

The dingo has been classified as a distinct Australian animal following research that sheds new light on its defining physical characteristics.The study also resurrects the species name Canis dingo,...

UNSW Science's Professor Matthew England has been honoured by being elected to the Australian Academy of Science.The Academy announced today that two UNSW researchers - Professor England and Scientia...

Searching for the debris of flight MH370 in the Southern Ocean is not just a case of looking for a needle in a haystack; it is a case of searching for a needle that moves hundreds of kilometres every...

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 – with 239 people on board – is unusual in that two days after the plane lost communication there is no reliable evidence of debris.No radio calls...

Performance research and testing on quad bikes project - a clarification.WorkCover NSW is leading the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities’ (HWSA) industry strategy to reduce fatalities and injuries...

Using a telescope installed at the driest place on earth - Ridge A in Antarctica – a UNSW-led team of researchers has identified a giant gas cloud which appears to be in an early stage of formation....

Happy Darwin Day! Is that even an appropriate thing to wish somebody? Especially so close to Valentine’s Day?Darwin Day, according to the International Darwin Day Foundation, is “a global celebration...

UNSW child psychologist, Professor Mark Dadds, features in a new documentary series on ABC TV which explores the controversial childhood condition, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD....

January 2014

New research firms up estimates of interbreeding between the now extinct Neanderthals and the ancestors of living Eurasians, write Associate Professor Darren Curnoe.It also provides new explanations...

If you were going to pick the school basketball team, you could line everyone up and pick the tallest players. That would be logical because it helps to be tall in basketball.But we all know that not...

Two UNSW Science researchers have been awarded prestigious Australian Academy of Science prizes for their work in statistical ecology and climate change science.Presented by the Australian Academy of...

Professor Merlin Crossley has accepted the offer of a second five-year term as Dean of the Faculty of Science at UNSW. Vice-Chancellor Professor Fred Hilmer says the early announcement of a new term...

Research has revealed the order in which flowering plants evolved strategies, such as shedding leaves or retreating underground, which let them spread around the globe by surviving cold climates.The...

Global average temperatures will rise at least 4°C by 2100 and potentially more than 8°C by 2200 if carbon dioxide emissions are not reduced, according to new research published in Nature.The finding...

UNSW's Professor Chris Turney and his team answer some commonly asked questions about the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013-2014, whose research vessel became trapped in ice in December.We have...

Critics of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition are wrong: the team was prepared, the risks were known and much was achieved, writes expedition leader, Professor Chris Turney.The last 24 hours have...